Helping Expectant Dads Survive Pregnancy

The market has plenty of pregnancy books for women, leaving guys on the outside looking in, hoping they’ll pick up crucial information by the time they need it. Veteran dad-of-four Aaron Sharp, a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary and my work colleague, decided to do what dads do best—fix it! In You Got This, Dad, Aaron offers a sort of wisdom literature, if you will: lessons for expectant fathers, learned from his own experiences. Having worked with him for the last 18 months, I can attest to his sense of humor as well. Get ready for some witty insights and, of course, great dad jokes. He graciously answered a few questions for me here.

A guy writing a book about pregnancy. What provoked you to do this project, and how much did your wife help?

Like a lot of writing projects the journey to publication for You Got This, Dad wasn’t a direct route. A couple of years ago I really became convinced that humor was one of the most important skills needed to deal with the ups and downs of parenting. My wonderful agent, Cynthia Ruchti, and I began pitching an idea for a parenting humor book. That pitch struck a chord with Harvest House Publishers, but they were curious about focusing in specifically on pregnancy. From there the back and forth between author, agent, and publishers produced You Got This, Dad.

How much did my wife help? Well, it isn’t a stretch to say that without her this book doesn’t get written, and I don’t just mean that without her there wouldn’t have been any pregnancies for me to write about. Her presence graces every page. Sometimes her presence is seen clearly in the form of footnotes correcting and occasionally heckling my writing. Sometimes her presence is more subtle in the form of the first editor and reviewer of everything I write. This was a fun book to write because even though she didn’t coauthor it, it was very much a collaborative effort. Sometimes it was, “How does this word sound?” Sometimes it was, “I can’t remember, how did we tell my parents we were pregnant the fourth time?” It is probably an understatement to say that she was indispensable to this project.

What is your favorite piece of advice for expectant dads?

There are so many pieces of advice, most of which dads are getting in spades as soon as people find out their wife is expecting. The one thing I would tell dads to do, which isn’t easy, is to slow down and really soak it in. Take your time and just experience the wonder of what this gift from God means for you and your wife. It all happens so fast and life is so busy, particularly if this isn’t your first pregnancy, you have no idea how many times you will go down this road, so do all you can to remember the journey – even if some of it is a little bumpy.